John P. Drew
Title: CEO, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center; Vice President, The Drew Co. of Boston
Age: 40
Experience: 11 years
John P. Drew has two jobs that keep him immersed in the Boston and Washington, D.C. commercial real estate scenes. Drew is CEO of Trade Center Management Assoc., which operates the 3.1-million-square-foot Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the nation’s capitol. He’s also a vice president at The Drew Co., the Boston-based real estate developer founded by his father that built such projects as the Seaport Boston Hotel and World Trade Center, the Bayside Exposition Center and, most recently, the Waterside Place luxury apartment complex that opened in February in the Seaport District. Drew was recently appointed to board of directors of The Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit group that is raising funds to restore “America’s front yard.”
Q: How big of an overhaul does the National Mall need?
A: I was introduced to the trust in 2008 at a benefit luncheon, which was the start of the fundraising campaign a few years back. I met with them and thought the mission was aligned with our interests. You have images of going to visit the Mall as a kid and I always remembered it as being clean and pristine. It is a mess. It’s been in a state of disrepair for years. We’ve had deferred maintenance and you have walkways that are falling apart. The turf was getting wiped away. It’s the biggest public-private cause in the country. The mall’s goal is to raise $350 million and there would be a Congressional match of that money. We’re a neighbor of the mall, and we capture a lot of the traffic, so it made a lot of sense. It’s such a draw for D.C., and our building is an attraction for D.C. as well.
Q: What’s the key to making the trade center successful?
A: We’re halfway through our second 10-year contract. We started prior to the opening of the building and gave input on how to turn it into adaptable event space. Part of the building’s mission is to be a trade center, and we talked about who the tenants should be and how to attract international business. We do 1,500 events a year. We handle the parking. It’s close to a million visitors a year. We’re busy.
Q: Even with all of the recent development in Boston’s Seaport District, what does the neighborhood still lack in 2014?
A: We need more retail in the area. The boom in the restaurants has been phenomenal in the neighborhood. But we still need more of the convenience stores and shopping centers. Those are all coming. There’s 300,000 square feet of retail going in up the road at Seaport Square. We’re seeing a lot of interest from retailers, even for our next phase at Waterside Place. I think they’re waiting for people to move in.
Q: How does the lease rate at Waterside Place measure up with all of the competition in the Boston luxury segment?
A: We’re 70 percent leased and it’s been very well-received. We’re right at the pace we hoped to be. We’re watching what the market is doing as far as incentives and we monitor all the other properties in the city. We’ve done some rent concessions – first month’s rent – and some parking incentives. If you really want people to live in the city, you have to accommodate pets and everything else.
Q: What will the 1.3-million-square-foot expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center mean as far as competition to the World Trade Center?
A: The BCEC has only helped business at the World Trade Center and all of the hotels around here. Facilities like the trade center are a bit smaller and are able to get the ancillary events. I think the expansion will be a great benefit.
Q: Should the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority be in the business of subsidizing hotel development in the Seaport?
A: They’re expensive to build. In Washington, D.C., that model has been very successful. These hotels are enormous and sometimes to get them built you need that support. If you have that capacity, it does become an attraction.
Q: What other metro markets are you looking at for expansion?
A: We have a niche in running trade centers and when they come up we’re always interested. We have a new project starting up in Algeria to run a conference center over there. That’s going to open in August. It’s the largest conference center in northern Africa. It’s 4 million square feet of just conference space.
Q: What’s it been like working with your father (CEO John E. Drew) for the last 11 years?
A: It works out well. There’s enough to do around here that he’s always available. I rely on his guidance and mentorship, but there’s also enough need in other cities that I have a role there. It’s been phenomenal for me to have access to his expertise. I’m very lucky.
Drew’s Top Five Favorite Things To Do:
- Golf
- Ski
- Play with his kids
- Go to the beach
- Go to the movies
